Monday, 11 March 2019:

This afternoon at about 5:22pm Hope, the female peregrine falcon at the Cathedral of Learning, laid her first egg of the season.

Here she is in two snapshots, above and below.

Every year she lays an egg approximately every other day until she reaches a total of four. Expect her next egg on March 13.

Watch her on the National Aviary falconcam.

(photos from the National Aviary falconcams at University of Pittsburgh)

Hope, the female peregrine at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning nest, looks as if she is ready to lay an egg.

She hadn’t done so as of 2 March 2019 at 9:30a but she’s clearly getting ready. Her earliest egg date in the past has been March 6.

Since I’m traveling in Hawaii right now I’ll probably miss the first egg moment but I know you’ll keep me posted.

Watch her on the National Aviary falconcam at: http://www.aviary.org/PF-NestCam1

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

While we wait for the first egg at the Hays bald eagle nest, other raptors are getting into a breeding mood. Red-tailed hawks are soaring together. Peregrines are pairing up.

Pittsburgh’s peregrines won’t lay eggs until March but they’re already busy claiming territory, attracting mates, and courting. You’ll see them perching near each other in prominent locations, engaging in spectacular courtship flights, the male bringing food for his lady, and the pair bowing at the nest (only visible on a falconcam). This activity makes February and March my favorite months for peregrine watching.

Claiming territory is a blatant activity but the peregrine’s first egg date is nearly impossible to determine without a falconcam. Unlike bald eagles, peregrines nest on inaccessible ledges and don’t begin incubation until the next to last egg has been laid. The only sign that they’re incubating is that you see only one peregrine for more than a month; the other one’s on the nest.

Thanks to the falconcam at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning we know that the resident female, Hope, lays her first egg between March 6 and 15. She and her mate Terzo are already courting as seen on Monday Feb 4. Watch them on the National Aviary’s streaming falconcam.

Visit the sites below to see Pittsburgh’s peregrines in person. Every site (except Pitt) needs additional observers and every observation is useful. You can help! Leave a comment if you want to join.

For additional information and resources see my Peregrine FAQs page.

(photo by Chad+Chris Saladin of the peregrine pair at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio. Yes, they perch in trees there.)

Every spring we wonder where the Downtown peregrines will choose to nest. In the past seven years Dori has chosen Third Avenue four times, Gulf Tower twice, and once an alcove at the former Macy’s. She prefers Third Avenue even though the season ended badly there last year.

This year we know Dori won’t be using the Gulf Tower nestbox. The building’s pyramid roof and exterior walls need critical maintenance and work is already underway. Rather than risk a failed peregrine nest attempt, the nestbox was removed yesterday in hopes that Dori will choose another site, which she’s likely to do anyway.

To give you an idea of the building’s dilemma, here’s what’s up. During a routine exterior inspection last summer significant problems were found on all sides of the building and on nearly every elevation. Worse yet, the top six stories — the pyramid tower — were found to be missing more than 85% of their mortar joints. The conditions are so severe that they require immediate remediation.

The photo below shows the Gulf Tower in 2017 with a yellow circle for the nestbox location. Peregrines don’t like to nest where humans are above the nesting zone.

Because the work affects the peregrines, Gulf Tower management conferred with the Pennsylvania Game Commission who provided recommendations: initially (a) Don’t work during the nesting season blackout dates, Feb 15th to July31st, then (b) a variety of strategies to try to exclude and deter the birds prior to the onset of nesting season, such as removing the nest box.

Given the masonry crisis there really wasn’t a choice. Remember when a 1,500 pound cornice fell from the Frick Building 18 months ago? Fortunately no one was hurt but the streets were closed for three weeks while crews constructed protective walls and encapsulated the damaged granite. Then repairs began. (Click here for WTAE video, here for P-G article.) Rugby Realty owns both the Frick Building and the Gulf Tower so they know exactly what can happen. They can’t afford to delay Gulf Tower repairs.

So this year there’s no Gulf Tower nestbox and no falconcam. However building management plans to complete masonry repairs by the end of 2019 and reinstall the nestbox for the 2020 season. The falconcam will be back next year.

For now we know where the Downtown peregrines won’t nest but not where they will nest. Dori is very creative. If she doesn’t choose Third Avenue I’ll be asking you to search for her just as we did in 2015.

(photo of nestbox from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower; photo of the Gulf Tower by John English)

Pittsburgh’s peregrines rarely visit their nests in December and when they do it’s for a very short time.

Here are three snapshots of a quick visit Hope made to the Pitt peregrine nest on Monday 17 December 2018. She was there only two minutes.

(photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)